Sweep yields access IDs

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 1, 2007

WASHINGTON - Documents captured in recent fighting in Baghdad included two identity cards for access to the fortified Green Zone, which contains Iraqi government headquarters, and an ID card for access to the U.S. Embassy, the Pentagon said Monday.

The adequacy of security in the Green Zone, also known as the international zone, has recently come into question, particularly after the April 12 suicide bombing in the Iraqi Parliament building that killed a lawmaker.

About two weeks before that attack, two suicide vests were found unexploded in the Green Zone. Less than a week before that, a rocket attack in the restricted zone killed an American contractor and an American soldier.

After Army Col. Steven Townsend gave a briefing Monday on the results of a March 20 to April 26 security sweep by U.S. and Iraqi troops in the Mansour district of west-central Baghdad, the Pentagon provided a detailed and lengthy list of the weapons, ammunition, documents and other materials captured during the fighting.

Besides the Green Zone and embassy identity cards, on which no details were provided, also captured were five Iraqi army ID cards, including four for an Iraqi army lieutenant colonel; al-Qaida propaganda materials; an Iranian training certificate dated January 2007; a briefcase with drawings of "remote airplanes" with flight plans around Baghdad; a map with possible locations of roadside bombs; and a black box with notes on remote-controlled cars.